Degrees prior to starting this degree program:

BA, University of Texas at Austin, 2018

MESc, Yale School of the Environment, 2022

Areas of Interest:

Morocco, Environmental anthropology, Agrarian change, Ethnobotany, Islam, Political ecology

Field Research Plans/History:

Lloyd’s current research focuses on an ongoing cactus blight in Southwestern Morocco, where he cactus (Opuntia Spp.) is deeply enmeshed in the political, economic, and religious life of rural agriculturalists. Imported by saints in the 16th century, this variety of Opuntia is understood to be a gift from God and has become an important part of their food culture. Given the plant’s semiotic, medicinal, and environmental affordances; the blight is threatening the community’s livelihoods, their foodways, and is reshaping how they imagine their future. In other words, Lloyd will be studying how this collapse is challenging the community’s sense of the world.